Re: XML storing and management


"Cimode" <cimode@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1190891062.759077.231610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Sep 26, 5:20 pm, Marshall <marshall.spi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 26, 5:16 am, karsoods53 <karsood...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I get XML feeds as input and have to store this data on our server. I
have worked with databases but new to XML. Can someone tell me how I
can store and manage this data?

A lot depends on what you want to do with this data. At the
low end, maybe it's enough to just record the strings. At the
other extreme, perhaps you need a complete schema for
the data coming in, and want to transform the data from
its XML hierarchy into a relational form.

Marshall

Common Marshall...Do not encourage the questionner into using an old
technology such as XML...

The OP doesn't explicitly want to use XML as a technology, nor does
Marshall's response encourage him in that direction. The OP explicitly
wants to use DATA that has been supplied to him in XML format. The question
"how can I store and manage this data" is exactly the right question.
Marshall's two suggestions establish a spectrum of possible rational
responses.

Cimode, I appreciate your sense of humor. The OP has asked a reasonable
question, and I'd like to see him get a reasonable response.

For the OP: Some DBMS products have a loader designed to transform incoming
XML into the tables that have been created for this purpose. The question
on how those tables should be designed is a fundamental database design
question, and the answer, as Marshall has said, depends on what you are
going to do with the data.

XML, in and of itself, doesn't answer a lot of the questions about the
internal structuring of the data. Is the data stored in multiple instances
of the same fixed form records? In other words, is the incoming data stored
in flat files dressed up to look like XML documents?

Or is stored in some deeply nested scheme that would be useful in the
context of a hierarchical DBMS, but is nearly meaningless in the context of
an SQL DBMS?

In other words, what is the visible structure of the XML data? The answer
to this question could guide your answer. Also, what resources are you
prepared to expend in order to store and manage this data "correctly"? This
goes full circle back to "what do you intend to do with the data"?

You may end up designing some tables whose sole function is to receive the
data in its incoming structure (minus the XML), as loaded very easily by a
fast and powerful loader. You may then design a schema of tables that are a
logical view of the data that is ... er, well .... "logical". Finally, you
would have to write some SQL code that would transform incoming data from
the incoming tables to the good logical tables. This may seem like the long
way around, but it might be simpler than transforming the data in one fell
swoop.






.

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